The theme for the tenth annual Stay Smart Online Week – taking place from 9-13 October – is ‘simple steps to online safety,’ with Australians urged to learn more about the practical and easy steps they can take to stay safe online and avoid cyber crime.

Forensic Accounting Qld will be supporting the initiative by sharing advice focused on five key areas of online safety:

Privacy of your personal information,

Strong passwords,

Software updates,

Backing up your important information, and

Avoiding online scams.

Cyber crime is on the rise:

It is estimated to cost Australians more than $1 billion per year, with around 43 per cent of cyber-attacks targeting small businesses.

With almost nine in ten Australians now accessing the internet daily, Steven Ponsonby, the Founding Director of Forensic Accounting Pty Ltd said “learning to be safe online is relevant to every aspect of our lives, whether at home, in the office, or at school”.

“We’re proud to be doing our bit to build greater awareness about the importance of online safety in our organisation, and in the community,”

Mr Ponsonby went on to say that “Stay Smart Online Week is the perfect time to talk with your family, friends, and employees about internet safety, so that as a community, we’re better prepared to avoid online threats, and to recover when things go wrong online”.

“The unfortunate reality is that despite an ever increasing awareness of the risks of fraud and cyber crime, it continues to increase each year.

”By each of us taking some small actions, like creating strong passwords, and regularly backing up our data, we can make a big difference in the fight against cyber crime.”

Stay Smart Online Week is part of the Australian Government’s Stay Smart Online program, designed to help everyday Australians and small to medium businesses understand the risks that come with using the internet, and the preventative measures they can take to protect personal information and assets from online scammers.

The initiative is supported by more than 1,400 business and community partners across Australia, including Forensic Accounting Qld.

Please refer to this Youtube video by radio and TV presenter Marc Fennell’s for some simple steps to online safety.

Steven Ponsonby is a Chartered Accountant FCA, a Certified Fraud Examiner CFE and Insolvency Practitioner RITP and is the founding Director of Forensic Accounting Pty Ltd, a leading independent forensic accounting practice, providing forensic accounting services and expertise to a broad spectrum of clients across Australia.